Day 7: Mr. Crabby Pants

I hate shopping malls. I really do. Sticking my tongue to an ice cold flag pole sounds more enticing than a trip to the mall.  But about ten years ago, shortly after my wife and I were newly married and before we had children, I recall a particular excursion to the mall that was worse than most.  We had been out for untold hours doing Christmas shopping and I was really, really grumpy.  I recall Brandi looking at me and saying, "You're hungry, aren't you?" "Yeah, I guess.  How do you know?" I responded.  "Because you're crabby and you're driving me nuts!" was her response.  That day I learned something about myself that I had never paid much attention to before and something that has become sort of a family joke ever since:  If Eric doesn't eat, Eric isn't happy.  

I knew this about myself heading into this adventure and so far have been able to fight off being a Grumpy Gus, but all that changed today.  About 5:00pm I was hungry.  Really hungry.  Not hungry enough to throw all caution to the wind and raid the refrigerator, but hungry enough to have been "shopping mall crabby."  I had told myself when I started this fast that it was my choice to do this and I was not going to let myself get grumpy when I wanted to eat.  I didn't do a very good job of that today and wasn't overly cordial when Brandi came home.  To her eternal credit  (she called it years ago at the mall, after all) she let me have my space.

I decided I needed to do something to take my mind off not being able to eat for another 2 1/2 hours.  It was a beautiful day, about 60 degrees, so I decided to go outside and do the one thing that would certainly cure my hunger . . . clean up four months worth of land mines in the back yard.  Bailey, our English Springer Spaniel, had apparently been very busy throughout the winter.  Well, 45 minutes and 3 1/2 grocery bags later,  I had a clean(er) yard, a change of attitude and a non-existent appetite.  There is a bit of an ironic twist here regarding Lenten Ramadan.  For most Muslims dogs are considered unclean animals and are rarely kept as pets.  For the moment at least, I can perhaps see why.

I made it through the day though.  Brandi was kind enough to wait and eat with me at 7:30.  She even commented that she didn't mind it because it made the evening seem less rushed and a bit more relaxing.  So, after a full week, I have managed to keep the fast.  In some ways today was more of a challenge than anything over our ski vacation.  At that time it was a new challenge and I was geared to go, but I have a feeling I will experience this type of test more frequently in the not so distant future.  But hey, there's only 5 1/2 more weeks to go!

One more note about fasting today.  I did have a little problem that was new.  Today I caught myself putting something in my mouth not once, not twice . . . but five times.  And up until now I had been able to, as Frank Costanza might say, "stop short."  Once it was the end of a pen, three times a fingernail that was bothering me and the last was a quick lick of my fingers after slicing a tomato for the boys' dinner.  Technically, this is a break of the fast and I would have to fast an extra day, but since Lent is already longer than Ramadan, I guess I have plenty of cushion built in for such mistakes.  (If you are keeping count you may want to note this was "oops" #1.)  I find it interesting how often I must do such things over the course of an ordinary day almost subconsciously, without even thinking about it.  I will be much more vigilant about this tomorrow.